If you love the basics - cereal, eggs, yogurts and uh, hot sauce, then you'll love what's for sale at Harris Teeter this week.  I also snagged a free toothbrush at CVS, but I didn't take a pic of it.

[See the breakdown on foxwilmington.com]

Man.  Cereal is expensive.  But with coupons and sales, you can get it for less than $1 a box.  I love that.  I spent $9.88 (w/o tax).  It would have normally cost me about $42.  That's a 76% savings!

I love great people and I love awesome ideas.

One is Give1Save1 that helps people who could use a dollar or two for bringing their family together.  It's really simple.  You give two dollars, and it helps a family with their adoption.

I wish these kinds of efforts were around when my parents adopted me.  It would have really helped them!  Nowadays, there seems to be a lot more support, and it really makes my heart swell. 

Just watch my friends' video of how their family came together!  Missy, Brad, Zeke and Quilla are all getting ready to bring home another baby from China. 

[Find out more about them and how you can help]

This video gives me goosebumps.  I love hearing little Zeke's voice!  Wait for the end!

I feel like I've been in a coupon coma lately.  Too many good deals to pass up... but so little time.  Thanks to my local super coupon bloggers, I was able to find the deals I needed to succeed at Triples Week at Harris Teeter!  In all, I saved 86% at the grocery store.  I spent $16.40 on all this stuff below, including Q-tips, hot dogs, eggs, mayonnaise, glass cleaner... really a ton of different things.


[See the breakdown]

Every now and then, I go on a kick to try products for the news.  This week, it was the Clipa.

The Clipa is a heavy-duty purse holder that can also be a fashion accessory.  We tested it out and decided that it worked!  It passed with flying colors, in fact!

Celebrities - even the Queen of England - are supposed Clipa users.  So... what do you think?  We gave one away tonight.  @K_Lenger won!  Thanks for playing - we'll do it again soon.  Watch for me and @FoxWilmington on Twitter to see how to win.

This was the first time we tried to put a Google Hangout On Air... on the air.  We didn't have anything to debate, so we thought it might be fun to get people to help us read the teases.  We had people from around the world on there!  It was just a little fun and another way to use a G+ hangout.  

Follow Fox Wilmington and WECT and circle me!  

This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.

It's here.  I have to admit, I wasn't really a believer in Google Plus when it first rolled out. But, thanks to journalists and friends like +George Kiriyama, +Sarah Hill, +Stefanie Cruz, +Mike Downes and +DeAno Jackson .. my opinion has greatly changed.

I love the new hangouts on air!  Some people have been able to use HOAs, but the feature was JUST rolled out to me today... and I am in LOVE!

I will still use Bambuser and VYou - but I do love the Google Hangouts.  Come circle me!  I'll circle you back.  In the meantime, check out our HOA Testing.  Basically, you can do a Google Hangout and have it stream live on YouTube.  What an amazing tool.

How much would you pay for this? 

This is another slow week in the coupon world (if you ask me), but there are still some great gotta-have-it-now kind of deals.  For example, we love Mission Tortillas.  So, this week we could get them on sale for .99-cents.  It's pretty convenient since I ate my last tortilla for lunch today.

Overall, I spent about $31 for all this stuff at Lowes Foods and Harris Teeter.

[See how I saved more than 50-percent]

My favorite deal this week is actually the Ortega jalapenos.  I only paid .49-cents for them when they're usually 1.39.  I've been making salsa at home this week, so this will come in handy!  Also, I like the PIllsbury Cinnamon rolls deal.  I normally don't eat that kind of stuff, but I'm going to have house guests in a couple of weeks, and this will be perfect for breakfast!  They're normally $1.99 a can, but they're on sale this week for $1.  With coupons, I got to take them home for .60-cents each.  I was a dummy and forgot an extra e-vic coupon from Harris Teeter.  Otherwise, I would've paid even less.

It's all over the web right now, so I guess it's safe to say that Kevin Bacon will be starring in a new drama on Fox, called The Following.  It's produced by the same North Carolina native who brought the world I Know What You Did Last Summer, Dawson's Creek and The Vampire Diaries.  Kevin Williamson has actually shot a lot of his projects in the Wilmington area.

The show is about an ex-FBI agent who tries to stop a cult of serial killers.  The catch is that the serial killer reaches out to his followers via social media.  And, if the pilot stays the same, you may be able to get a glimpse of me when the first episode airs.  I accepted a small role as a reporter.  It wasn't a big stretch, though I think Kevin Bacon's makeup artist made me look drastically different!

The pilot was shot in Atlanta, but the rumor at the time was that the show might move to NYC if it got picked up.  It was honestly one of the coolest things I've ever done.  The production put me up in the same hotel as the actors, a driver took me to the set, wardrobe, hair and makeup artists worked me over, and the crew even gave me a trailer!

Playing a reporter is much different than being a real-life journalist, of course.  I think I should probably stick to my dayjob!  I didn't want to take a lot of pictures because I thought it might be distracting... so I managed to snap a couple.  Anyway, it was a ton of fun.  Thanks to Lisa Mae Fincannon for casting me!  Does this mean I'm just one degree of separation from Kevin Bacon?

I was one of the last voters in my polling place.  As I walked out, the clock hit 7:30 p.m.

It's always weird voting for the first time in a new place.  The last time I voted, I was in Missouri...where you DON'T have to register under a party affiliation.  Today, the guy behind me said he was also a new voter and was trying to register under an affiliation.  I don't think he got very far.

Also, I find it a little odd that you don't have to show a voter ID card or a picture ID.  I feel like I could be anybody.  What's stopping someone from voting early as themselves and then voting as someone else the day of the election?  

I digress.

It was an interesting election.  First of all, the state board of elections folks said there was an uptick of voters during the last few hours of polls being open.  The marriage amendment seemed to bring out more voters, too.  The turnout from 2012 could surpass the 2008 primary.

In case you've been living under a rock, there was a constitutional amendment on the table asking voters if marriage should be legally defined between a man and a woman.  It passed.  That means we'll likely change our state constitution, even though same sex marriage is currently banned in the state.  North Carolina is now the 30th state to make this kind of move.

[Is this our generation's Civil Rights issue?]

There were also some surprises in our local and regional elections, too.  The race was especially close for a congressional seat between Ilario Pantano and David Rouzer.  Rouzer won, despite Pantano putting up a good fight.  Pantano was hoping to have a rematch between Democrat incumbent Mike McIntyre.

Also, New Hanover County commissioner Jason Thompson got voted out of his seat.  Thompson has been involved with city and county government for quite some time and even said during out 10 p.m. newscast that he was surely going to be looking at a run-off situation.  A lot changed between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m.  

And, Charles Warren from Brunswick County failed to move on from his primary.  The commissioner has had one heck of a bad year fighting with fellow board members.  Tonight, the woman Warren kicked out of a county meeting...ended up kicking him out of his seat.  

Politics are like sports.  There are winners and losers.  There are fanatics, blogs, watch parties, and big to-dos.  And in both cases, no matter how passionate you are, there's a good chance the outcome won't immediately or directly impact your family.  However, it doesn't stop us from caring.  And hopefully, it doesn't stop us from voting either.  We may not like all of the outcomes, but at least we took advantage of the chance to be heard.

On a much lighter note - look what happened while I was out field anchoring!  Hugs all around!  Let's see how many hugs I can get out on future liveshots!  ::)

I'm sure there are a lot of sleepy people out there this weekend after the Brunswick County Relay for Life!

I loved saying a few words to kick off the Kids Walk this year.  They were so excited!  And many of them had stayed up the night before - so they were getting tuckered out.

Big congrats to Eileen Arnett - she's in the 8th grade and designed the winning Relay shirt!  She's such a sweet girl.  Her whole family was pretty awesome.  I met so many great people this weekend!  We are really blessed with awesome weather, surroundings and people.